Thank you for your question, Ms. Brière.
As I have just said, we have accomplished a lot. That includes the work of the Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying and Medical Illness, the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, the federal government and Health Canada, as well as the provinces and territories, experts, doctors and nurses.
We are nearly there. We just need to make sure that everyone is on the same wavelength. In order to do so, we need another year to take into account the work that has been done so that the assessors and healthcare providers that are working in the field are ready to assess requests for medical assistance in dying in a safe and consistent manner. We are here to take the time that we need to ensure that the guidelines and the framework are understood by everyone.
We are on the right track. As I said, many experts believe that we are already there and that we should go forward right now, but we want to make sure that we are proceeding in a safe and prudent manner. That's the reason we're asking for another year, to make sure that we are all on the same wavelength.